by RNS | Aug 30, 2023 | Beating Tsundoku
Paul Dawson, The Battle Against the Luddites (Pen & Sword, 2023)
I have been called a Luddite, someone who cannot accept technological progress and would rather break the machine than adopt it. It is quite a common insult, but it doesn’t mean historically what most people think it does. Paul Dawson’s latest book surveys the Luddites and paints a far different picture than most would expect. They were not reactionary thugs, but revolutionaries, or perhaps counter-revolutionaries, seeking to find their place in the industrial revolution sweeping England during the Napoleonic Wars.
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Dawson opens in 1803 with Britain divided along class and religious grounds. Luddism’s epicentre lay in the woollen industry in Yorkshire, which was transforming from a cottage industry to a factory system based on machines. From the late 18th Century, the Luddites smashed machines and terrorised the emerging capitalist class in unrest that extended to rural areas as the Enclosure system took hold. These protests, Dawson argues, were underpinned by Jacobin ideology and non-conformist religion. An emerging social and economic crisis in the 1790s, capped by a terrible harvest in 1799, led to the nascent working class becoming organised, causing fears of a French-style revolution amongst the ruling class. Luddites, according to Dawson, were part of this broader class struggle. In 1802, they burned mills and formed illegal trade unions. The Tory government, argues Dawson, backed capital over labour, however, using threats of force and prison to make their case. The Whigs, on the other hand, often sided with the workers. All this was set against an economy struggling through the often unpopular Napoleonic wars. Peace petitions to the government failed though, prompting increased working class resistance through violence.
We move forward to Nottingham in 1811 with targeted attacks on machine owners and general unrest. Then came the loss of American trade, making matters worse through increased unemployment and inflation. More violence erupted in 1812, some of it armed and organised with military precision. Disturbances spread into Lancashire. Then came food riots. A thoroughly alarmed Government deployed Dragoons to quell the violence by using violence, but the Luddite outbreak evolved into a revolutionary movement, argues Dawson, with many believing that the French would assist. The government reacted by mustering an army near Manchester that embarked on a wave of ‘military pacification’. Nevertheless, the assassination of the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, in May 1812, met with open celebrations in Luddite supporting territories. Throughout the summer, the Luddites conducted raids to collect arms. The Government responded with repressive tactics on the ground while adopting legislation designed to support coercion while alleviating some of the economic conditions underlying the Luddite cause. The government’s carrot and stick tactics weakened the Luddites, and the movement was all but routed by November 1812. Show trials then executions followed in 1813 literally killing Luddite support. The Luddites may have been defeated, notes Dawson, but Luddism was not as resurgent violence in 1816 and 1817 demonstrated. Dawson concludes by reinserting the Luddites into the broader class struggle against those exploiting the emerging working class in a time of severe disruption.
The Battle Against the Luddites is a misleading title for this book, which focuses primarily on the rise and fall of the Luddites with government action a necessary but secondary part of the story. Dawson’s quite orthodox Marxist interpretation of the Luddites might also be questioned, particularly when he makes comparisons to the Miners’ strikes of the 1980s, though he just about steers clear of allowing his argument to become a polemic. Neither of those issues make this a bad book, however. Dawson’s detailed narrative is a valuable contribution to the literature on the Luddites. Moreover, Dawson’s inclusion of contemporary quotes adds to our understanding of this highly influential movement for the foundations of the English working class. After reading this, you certainly could not dismiss the Luddites as just machine breaking thugs.
by RNS | Aug 21, 2023 | Beating Tsundoku
Daniel Marston, The American Revolution 1774-83 (Osprey, 2023)
Some might argue that the most important event in modern western history was the successful American Revolution fought against the British between 1774 and 1783. And while there were many reasons for the American victory, winning the armed conflict was the central factor. Daniel Marston’s volume in Osprey’s Essential Histories series focuses on that war, which looks familiar to European eyes but somehow different.
Marston leads with an introductory narrative of the events leading to war. He follows that with an analysis of the competing military systems along with military innovations such as mixed infantry and cavalry units and an increase in irregular warfare. Otherwise, the war mostly conformed to orthodox European tactics. Marston highlights British military problems, which were many despite the reputation of their field army, with logistics arguably the greatest issue for a war fought 3,000 miles away. For their part, the Americans started with just militia forces and had to raise an army and train them, but they were operating on home ground, giving them a distinct advantage. Then, when the French entered the war on the American side, they brought an efficient and effective force to bear. That proved decisive.
Marston returns to his narrative with the shot heard round the world at Lexington and the battles that followed in 1775. The author then adopts a broader view of the war, surveying naval and land operations at the strategic level, though again following the chronological narrative with the major battles included and ending at Yorktown. Marston pauses briefly to consider some of the main political, social, and economic impacts of the war before examining how the war ended and its global ramifications.
This is a well-structured military history that sketches out the main lines of the narrative of the Revolution while moving smoothly between the different theatres of war. That isn’t easy given the different nature of the war between the northern region and the South. Marston also succeeds admirably in placing the war in the global context, particularly highlighting the problems the French created for the British across its empire. As ever, Osprey supports Marston with excellent graphics, maps, and illustrations. This is a useful introduction to the American Revolution for military and general history readers.
by RNS | Aug 11, 2023 | Beating Tsundoku
Tim Saunders, Battle for the Bocage, Normandy 1944 (Pen & Sword, 2021)
It probably comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the Normandy campaign in 1944 that the British struggled to reach their inland objectives on D-Day and beyond. But how and why that was the case requires careful explanation. In Battle for the Bocage, Tim Saunders narrates a detailed story of men learning to fight in a hostile and unfamiliar environment while under intense pressure.
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Saunders makes the argument that the British army on D-Day was not as veteran as usually stated. Moreover, those men that had fought in the desert war were unprepared for what awaited them in Normandy. That is worth remembering as Saunders takes us into D-Day where chaos ensued on the beaches and the invading force slipped behind Montgomery’s ambitious timetable. As they overcame the beach defences and pushed inland into bocage country, the British met with congested narrow roads, snipers, anti-tank guns, well-placed machine-gun positions and numerous other obstacles, not to mention they were often facing SS troops with better tanks who were intent on counter-attacking at every opportunity. Saunders notes that the Germans had their problems too: command problems, poor deployment at times, mechanical issues, and general disarray as might have been expected when under incessant naval gunfire, artillery, and air attacks with bombs and rockets. Nevertheless, despite all that and considerable losses, the Germans maintained a capable defence for many days after D-Day. Both sides wore down, physically and psychologically, but Saunders highlights that the British could rest and recover while replacements entered the lines, luxuries not afforded to the Germans. The British also learned on the job, developing better tactics, but even then, by 19 June, when they captured Tilly, the British 50th Division was played out and Saunders’ narrative ends. Along the way, he covers notable events such as the actions at Tiger Hill and Essex Woods, and Wittman’s infamous, spectacular attack on a British column with Tigers on 13 June. Saunders’ book concludes with appendices for Orders of Battle, an extract from 8 Armoured Brigade’s Operation Order, a chronology of the 101st Schwere Panzer Battalion’s route to Normandy, a note on Tiger reliability, a Situation Report from 7th Armoured Division, and a comparison of British and German ranks.
Battle for the Bocage is a comprehensive account of the British army’s efforts on D-Day and the following fortnight as they became entangled in the Normandy hedges. Saunders narrates the action from top to bottom but with an emphasis on those doing the fighting. He deploys a wide range of sources and is ably supported by an array of excellent photographs and maps. There are times, however, where he becomes a commentator, letting his selected quotes do too much of the work. Moreover, Saunders sometimes drifts to include topics that distract from his narrative when a simple note would have sufficed. That said, anyone wanting to know about the British army in Normandy will find this a more than useful book.
by RNS | Aug 1, 2023 | Beating Tsundoku
Angus Konstam, German High Seas Fleet 1914-18 (Osprey, 2023)
The Battle of Jutland in 1916 was the iconic naval action of World War I. It was not quite the Great War’s Trafalgar, but the German High Seas Fleet barely dipped its toes into the North Sea again. In this book, in Osprey’s new Fleet series, Angus Konstam surveys the German fleet and finds a bit more than the ‘luxury fleet’ claim famously made by Winston Churchill.
Konstam begins with the fleet’s purpose, considering why the Kaiser built a powerful navy when defensively it served little purpose for Germany’s relatively short coastline. Because they could is a neat ‘imperial’ answer, but Germany also wanted to challenge the Royal Navy’s supremacy as a deterrent in the North Sea, the so-called Risk Theory. That set off a naval arms race that the Germans lost. Konstam then surveys the German Dreadnoughts, battlecruisers, and torpedo boats, the latter two incorporated into the scouting groups that brought on the Battle of Jutland. Ship design follows then the organisation of the High Seas Fleet and its layered command and control at naval and fleet levels. Konstam includes communications and its problems, along with naval intelligence. Though they had wireless systems, most communications and intelligence were still visibility based. Ships do not sail without logistical support and ports. The main German port, Wilhelmshaven, proved just capable of housing the large High Seas Fleet; it was a good supply hub, though dependent on supplies coming from source in a struggling Germany. Konstam closes with a brief analysis of the High Seas Fleet in battle. With the Kaiser reluctant to risk his fleet, major actions were few and far between, though Konstam covers them all. He notes that the fleet was more about imperial status than serving any strategic purpose, but that would have hardly mattered because the RN handily outnumbered the Germans despite a relative parity in ship quality. Konstam concludes that the German High Seas Fleet could have done more than it did but for the Kaiser’s over-protective stance not to risk his pet project.
Angus Konstam is a prolific and capable writer of naval history. It will come as no surprise then that this latest offering from his keyboard is a well written and informative account of the German High Seas Fleet. He is ably supported in his endeavour by Osprey’s usual selection of photographs and illustrations, the maps are particularly useful. Konstam includes a brief bibliography for further reading, and this Fleet series book will act as a serviceable introduction for any of them.
